There is a need for antiskid fabrics in various applications such as floor mats, furniture decking, filler cloths for bedding and backings for upholstery and rugs. For some applications frictional properties are required at both surfaces of a fabric. Other applications require only one antiskid surface and a second surface with different characteristics.
Prior attempts to obtain such materials have involved application of latex emulsions or even natural waxes such as beeswax to coat fabrics to impart tackiness; however, application of such coatings can complicate manufacture due to the process manipulations, materials and materials handling systems and other equipment required for applying, curing and removing any solvent from the liquid coating materials. Coating both sides of a fabric can also be difficult due to special equipment needs for coating both sides in a single pass or stiffness of fabrics coated on one side if a two step coating process is used. Further, latex formulations are typically based on rubbery polymers that are not, or are only poorly, compatible with the plastic materials often used to make the fabrics to which the coatings are applied. This prevents reuse of trim, scrap and the like in plastics recycling operations involving melt processing, not only representing inefficient use of raw materials but also requiring alternative disposal techniques.
Another known approach to imparting antiskid or friction properties to fabrics is to laminate fabrics to a film of a tacky plastic or elastomeric resin such as ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, ethylene-propylene copolymer or ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymers. This approach obviates the need for liquid latex handling equipment but, depending on the choice of film and composition of the substrate, may not improve recyclability. Moreover, achieving adequate bonding of films to fabrics is often difficult due to a variety of factors including poor adhesion between their materials of construction and configuration of the substrate. The laminated fabrics also tend to be stiff such that further processing and use are impaired. In addition, if the film used to impart tackiness is too tacky under temperature and humidity conditions normally encountered in storage, handling, further processing or use, both the films and the laminated substrates may be impaired or require special processing or expensive release papers to ensure utility.
Elastomeric, substantially continuous filament nonwoven webs of copolyester ether elastomers according to commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,356 also are known. The webs exhibit considerable tackiness and show poor adhesion to many common plastics used in fabrics and poor compatibility with such plastics for purposes of recycling operations. They also are too costly for widespread use in many applications for antiskid fabrics. The aforementioned patent also discloses continuous filament nonwoven webs having filaments comprising thermoplastic elastomers including polyurethanes and elastomeric olefin polymers. Composites thereof with other materials including various woven and nonwoven fabric substrates are also disclosed.